Ringfencing NOW upon us ?

[Bunchy]

ringfencing will be announced in January - initially 13 teams with options for others to apply should they meet the criteria.....

[Scott1]

ringfencing will be announced in January - initially 13 teams with options for others to apply should they meet the criteria.....

Source please mate

[tigerburnie]

I see it as killing the game as a spectacle, half the teams will have little to play for later in the season so it'll be dead rubber games with squads of players you won't recognise. Potential for fringe players to get games, but the standard is likely to drop in those games. Remember how county cricket was until they introduced two leagues and relegation? cricket is much better for it, money men protecting their stash and not caring what happens to the game.

[LE18]

Surely ringfencing for this year would be a very sensible decision, image Tigers catching Covid and loads of our matches called off, we get relegated? I think this year is a must, so that its not a lottery, like the Euros are becoming.

[Jimmy Skitz]

I see it as killing the game as a spectacle, half the teams will have little to play for later in the season so it'll be dead rubber games with squads of players you won't recognise. Potential for fringe players to get games, but the standard is likely to drop in those games. Remember how county cricket was until they introduced two leagues and relegation? cricket is much better for it, money men protecting their stash and not caring what happens to the game.

county cricket is dead with the exception of T20, even Test Cricket is struggling apart from the high profile tourists, probably not the best example to pick

[TigerFeetSteve]

I see it as killing the game as a spectacle, half the teams will have little to play for later in the season so it'll be dead rubber games with squads of players you won't recognise. Potential for fringe players to get games, but the standard is likely to drop in those games. Remember how county cricket was until they introduced two leagues and relegation? cricket is much better for it, money men protecting their stash and not caring what happens to the game.

I much prefer the idea of if ringfencing is coming in for it to cover 2 divisions, it means there's things riding on the league, it gives security to the smaller clubs which means they can build towards more teams becoming ready for Premiership rugby, that's more likely to give clubs a chance to build up the standard in the Championship, ok below them the same issues would drop to National 1 instead, but ringfencing 2 divisions would encourage more investors to think that maybe a Championship club is worth investing in rather than it all being tied to 13 clubs.

[Tiglon]

Surely ringfencing for this year would be a very sensible decision, image Tigers catching Covid and loads of our matches called off, we get relegated? I think this year is a must, so that its not a lottery, like the Euros are becoming.

We'll be fine if we get covid. Just scrape together any kind of team, the opposition will pull out in fear of covid, win for Tigers

It worked for Scarlets...

[Scott1]

It’s funny this “nothing to play for line” with ringfencing when until very,very recently we have always had a whipping boy when it comes to relegation and it didn’t spoil the league at all. LI,Wuss,Bristol,London Welsh etc. Could be wrong but the only relegation battle I recall was is and Newcastle.

[Bunchy]

ringfencing will be announced in January - initially 13 teams with options for others to apply should they meet the criteria.....

Source please mate

Peter Tom

[Hot_Charlie]

ringfencing will be announced in January - initially 13 teams with options for others to apply should they meet the criteria.....

Hopefully quickly up to 14 and maybe later 16. It’ll be very interesting to see how the conference system works; if the Prem does grow over 5 years or so bigger than 14, I think we’ll have a conference system in place.

[Scott1]

It’s funny this “nothing to play for line” with ringfencing when until very,very recently we have always had a whipping boy when it comes to relegation and it didn’t spoil the league at all. LI,Wuss,Bristol,London Welsh etc. Could be wrong but the only relegation battle I recall was ourselves and Newcastle.

[Tiglon]

It’s funny this “nothing to play for line” with ringfencing when until very,very recently we have always had a whipping boy when it comes to relegation and it didn’t spoil the league at all. LI,Wuss,Bristol,London Welsh etc. Could be wrong but the only relegation battle I recall was is and Newcastle.

A lot of sense in that.

The other main argument against is that it destroys the dream of a smaller club making their way to the Premiership, but that has never been a reality anyway, other than by investing huge amounts of money which I'm sure will still be possible.

Instinctively, I'm against ring fencing, but there just isn't enough strength in the championship to make the concept of relegation/promotion as exciting as I like to think it is.

Promotion and relegation works in football for two reasons:
1) there is professionalism throughout the league system and the Championship is possibly the most competitive league in professional sport.
2) football results can often rely on one piece of fortune, one moment of magic. Upsets are possible.

Rugby is the opposite. There is very little professionalism below the Premiership and the Championship is possibly the most predictable league in the world of sport. Rugby itself is not made for upsets either, so that dream of the underdog triumphing is just not realistic.

If there are only 13/14 teams that can compete with each other, why pretend otherwise?

[Scott1]

If it does happen I would like it to be 13 teams so one team gets a bye each week and I would like it revisited say every 3 years. Interesting that Sarries are talking about setting a cup competition up in the Championship if it is pushed back until March. I reckon Sarries owe us a favour,have we got the squad to enter a team? Thoughts?

[TigerFeetSteve]

If it does happen I would like it to be 13 teams so one team gets a bye each week and I would like it revisited say every 3 years. Interesting that Sarries are talking about setting a cup competition up in the Championship if it is pushed back until March. I reckon Sarries owe us a favour,have we got the squad to enter a team? Thoughts?

If there is some sort of tournament that means our development players etc get regular rugby I'm in favour of it. We have plenty of players in need of game time.

[kk20gb30]

'The Rugby Paper' (6/12/20 , Neal Harvey ) believes an announcement in Jan 2021 confirming Ringfencing.